Search

Recently I decided that I needed to change my diet, so that I was eating more beans (or protein) and less pasta. Thus the need for a nicely seasoned bean recipe was born! The full recipe is at the bottom of the post. I really like the combination of spices, but you can obviously alter the amount of each used if you want. Next time I might throw in some fresh onion, garlic, and cilantro as well, but this was work-with-whatever-is-in-the-kitchen style cooking. Excuse the lighting in some of the pictures; I’m still learning how to take nice pictures without natural light or Photoshop (I’m definitely noticing that some of these pictures are a little dark!).

Start by pouring 1 can of black beans (rinsed) and 1 can of water into a pot. Bring to a boil.

Once the beans are boiling, reduce the heat. Mine was set on medium-low. At this point add your spices: 1/2 teaspoon onion salt and oregano, 1 teaspoon cumin, garlic powder, and paprika. Stir. Let simmer for 15 minutes and then remove from heat.

This point is where I had to get creative. 🙂 How was I going to drain the excess water while retaining the flavor of the spices? To solve my problem I covered the surface of a strainer with a layer of paper towels, poured the beans on top of that, and let them drain as much as possible.

I went ahead and moved the beans with a regular spoon over to a bowl because I wanted to keep a little bit of the liquid (who likes dry beans? not me!).

In addition to the beans I cooked up some white rice, so that I could make simple burritos with just rice, beans, and sour cream.

Here’s the inside of my burrito:

My mom told me that beans + corn = a complete protein (and moms are always right 🙂 ), so I boiled some corn for 7 minutes to go along with my burrito. Yum!

Since there is only one of me and lots of beans, I wrapped up three more (medium sized) burritos to freeze for later. I saw this idea over at Shutterbean, and I’ve been waiting to try it out for a while. Her tips are to take off the foil, wrap the burrito in a damp paper towel, and microwave for 3 minutes. I think for these smaller burritos 2 minutes might be okay. I’ll report back once I’ve tried it.

Spiced BlackBeans makes enough beans for 4 medium burritos

Ingredients

1 Can Black Beans

1 Can Water

1/2 tsp onion salt

1/2 tsp oregano

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp paprika

Directions

Bring beans and water to a boil in a small saucepan

Reduce heat to medium-low

Add spices. Stir to combine

Let simmer for 15 minutes

Drain beans using a stainer with a layer of paper towels on top to retain the flavors

Today was a great day because it had stuffed french toast in it. And brunch. You can’t go wrong with those two, especially not when they’re combined. Since I want everyone to know how easy it is to make this deliciousness, let’s get cooking!

Alright. So now that you have your custard waiting for you in the fridge and your bread pockets all dried up and ready to go, it’s time to whip up the filling. Fred Meyer didn’t have mascarpone cheese, so I used vanilla Greek yogurt. Sad.

Then you take your mixture and put it into a plastic baggie.

After you cut off a corner of the baggie, you release the filling into the bread pockets.

Now it’s time to get your custard out from the fridge and pour it into a nice, shallow dish.

Next you let each piece of bread soak up all the creamy goodness for 30 seconds on each side.

Finally, you turn to Cameron and say, “hey, cook this stuff for me!” (and he will because he’s such a nice guy)

Last but not least you send those puppies into the oven to let the magic happen.

And how you’re ready to eat! Our brunch spread turned out pretty nicely, and the french toast/eggs/fruit salad were accompanied by vegan french toast (courtesy of Betty) and a few silver dollar pancakes. The sun came with me when I went up to Washington, so we got to enjoy our meal outside. It was a nice last hurrah with the friends.

Tomorrow my friends and I are making brunch. On the menu: stuffed french toast, fruit salad, scrambled eggs. This is my favorite stuffed french toast recipe. If you asked my family, you would know that I make a lot of stuffed french toast, so I know what I’m talking about. 😉 Check out the recipe on Tasty Kitchen if you want exact details.

First you have to cut up your bread and make little pockets in it. I used Italian because they didn’t have Challah at Fred Meyer. Sad.

Then I went ahead and prepped the custard for tomorrow. You just whisk your half and half, eggs, and honey in a bowl.

You gotta have a little attitude while you mix everything together. And your friend Cameron taking pictures for you.